IMPROVED TRANSIENT-RESPONSE APPROXIMATION FOR GENERAL DAMPED SYSTEMS

A new approximation for peak transient dynamic displacements is presen ted. This approximation is based on modal analysis and is valid for ge neral damped structures, which includes the case of actively controlle d structures. Intermediate design variable and intermediate response q uantity concepts are used to enhance the accuracy of the approximation . When this high-quality approximation is used within the context of t he approximation concepts approach to design synthesis, the overall ef ficiency of the process expected to be improved by reducing the number of complete analyses required for convergence. Numerical results that illustrate the effectiveness of the method are presented.